Obama Leaves for the G-20, and the House Special Election in New York Begins

Our daily look at stories and topics that are lighting up the Internets:

Anticipating the G-20

President Obama launched his eight-day, five-country trip to Europe today, where he'll attend this week's G-20 meeting. Anticipation for Obama's arrival, as well as this ultimatum from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has all the bloggers talking. Take, for example, this piece on anticipating the president in Turkey. David Rothkopf writes on the three roles Obama will play at the G-20, arguing that it will be a good trip if two out of the three are successful. William Kern posts this interesting piece, which discusses the U.S.'s swift move from cowboy to sheriff capitalism. This liberal blogger thinks it's greed that the world's leaders should be fighting, while this conservative disagrees. And liberal Anne Applebaum starts her piece on the G-20 with the following riddle: "What is big, loud, unnecessary, and costs $75 million?" Her answer: the G-20 itself, and suffice to say, she's not a fan.

Ir-Af-Pak

Iran is drawing a lot of attention from the blogosphere today, among many other discussions on the continuing fallout from Obama's Af-Pak strategy speech last week. Bloggers are reacting to this interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which the PM hints that Israel will take action against Iran's nuclear program if the U.S. fails to stop it. Andrew Sullivan highlights parts of the interview that should draw our closest attention. New items like this one from the Middle East Times seem to corroborate the ultimatum. Liberal Stuart Whatley, however, sees surprising signs for optimism in Iran's offer to NATO and the U.S. to help rebuild Afghanistan. Moving on to Afghanistan, liberal Jeremy Scahill worries that conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan is commanding too much of the president's attention. The pressing issues, he writes, are in Iraq. This post from Thomas Ricks makes Scahill's point seem more than plausible. But then again, Joe Gandelman reminds us why we might want to worry about Pakistan instead.

Today's New York Bellwether

Today is Election Day in upstate New York, and voters are choosing between Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco to fill Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's former House seat. Many are calling the election the first referendum on President Obama and the Democrats. This special election, writes Johanna Neuman, "is shaping up as a hell of a contest." Liberal Eric Kleefeld posts this summary on the special election. Another summary by Emily Cadei is available here. Dam Amira cynically describes the race: "For Democrats, it's a chance to pick up a completely nonpivotal 255th seat in Congress and demonstrate that voters still like the party of Obama even though, a whole two months later, it has yet to fix the economy, while Republicans hope to prove that they're still capable of winning elections if they focus all their attention on one heavily favorable district." This liberal blogger thinks the election stands for nothing more than petty bragging rights. And Andrew Sullivan discusses this campaign video from the DNC that you're sure to see again and again (and possibly again ...).

... Meanwhile ...

The coolest slideshow of birds stealing ice cream you'll ever see... A history of Google April Fools' Day pranks (slideshow)... The 10 funniest Freudian slips in TV history (video)... And no soap opera could ever dream this story up.